Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/326

AVA a French lieutenant-general, distinguished in the war of the Spanish succession. The victory of Almanza is attributed to his skill and valour. Died in 1745.  AVARAY,, a French general, born in 1740, distinguished himself in the Seven Years' War, was wounded in the battle of Minden, and attained the rank of colonel in his twenty-fifth year. He represented the nobility of Orleanais in the States-General of 1789, and was afterwards a member of the Constituent Assembly. Died in 1829.  AVAUX, ', a distinguished French diplomatist, was born in 1595. After passing through a variety of government offices, he began to be employed in diplomatic business in the year 1627, and, in the course of a few missions, so won the esteem of Richelieu, as to be entrusted with the greater part of the complex negotiations by which the cardinal designed to put an end to the Thirty Years' War. He lost the favour of Mazarin, Richelieu's successor, and in 1648, two years before his death, ceased to be employed in public business.  AVAUX,, was president of the parliament of Paris, at the death of Louis XIV., and attached himself to the party of the duke of Maine, who contested the regency with the duke of Orleans. In 1718, he headed the parliament in addressing a remonstrance to the regent, and was banished, along with the other members, to Pontoise, where, it is said, he held a sort of court, to which numbers of the Parisian nobility flocked, as much to enjoy the flavour of Monsieur de Mesmes' excellent wit, as to witness the curious spectacle of a parliament in exile. Several of his epigrammatic sayings are preserved in D'Alembert's "eloge" of the president. Died in 1723.—J. S., G.  AVAUX,, a celebrated French diplomatist, brother of the preceding, was employed by Louis XIV. in various negotiations, especially in those with Holland, previous to the departure of the prince of Orange for England. He was sent to London in 1688. Died in 1709.  AVAUX,, president à mortier of the parliament of Paris, and member of the academy; died in 1688.  AVED,, a French portrait painter of considerable merit, born at Douay in 1702; died in 1766.  AVEDIK, patriarch of Armenia towards the commencement of the eighteenth century. He was imprisoned in 1701 for having engaged in a persecution of the catholics of his patriarchate. <section end="326H" /> <section begin="326I" />AVEIRO,, Duke of, a Portuguese statesman, who, along with the marquis of Tavora and several other noblemen, was executed in 1759 for having attempted the life of José I. Aveiro had been for a long period engaged in plotting the downfall of José's favourite minister, Cavalho, and was easily induced by the Tavora family, who had other reasons for desiring the death of the king, to take part in the conspiracy.—J. S., G. <section end="326I" /> <section begin="326J" />AVELINE,, a French engraver of great merit, who reproduced many of the works by Watteau, Boucher, Joardaens, &c. Other members of his family were also engravers of some note, but none surpassed, or even equalled him. He was born in Paris in 1710, and died in 1760. <section end="326J" /> <section begin="326K" />AVELLANEDA,, a Spanish miscellaneous writer, who wrote, during the lifetime of Cervantes, a continuation of Don Quixote. <section end="326K" /> <section begin="326L" />AVELLANEDA,, a native of Toledo, author of a genealogical account of his family, lived at the commencement of the seventeenth century. Another , a jesuit of Toledo, wrote two treatises concerning the confessional. Died in 1598. <section end="326L" /> <section begin="326M" />AVELLANEDA,, count of Castrillo, Spanish viceroy of Naples, lived in the latter part of the sixteenth century. The chief events which occurred during the period of his administration, were the duke of Guise's unsuccessful attempt in 1654 to excite a revolution in the Neapolitan territories, and the plague which ravaged the capital two years later. Avellaneda is commended for the vigorous measures which he took to stay, if possible, the dreadful ravages of the pest.—J. S., G. <section end="326M" /> <section begin="326N" />AVELLANI,, an Italian poet of considerable merit, born at Venice, 1761. He wrote a great many pieces in prose and in verse, the most important of which were "Padova Riaquistata," and "Isabella Rovignana." <section end="326N" /> <section begin="326O" />AVELLAR,, a Portuguese bishop and statesman, celebrated for numerous improvements in agriculture which he introduced into his diocese, and also for his patriotic exertions during the period of the French invasion, was born of humble parentage in 1739. He was named bishop of Algarvez in 1789. Died in 1816. <section end="326O" /> <section begin="326P" />AVELLINO, ), an Italian jurist and priest, canonized by Clement II., was born in 1521, and died at Naples in 1608. <section end="326P" /> <section begin="326Q" />AVELLINO,, an Italian archæologist, born at Naples in 1788. After a course of study for the bar, he became tutor to the family of Murat. In 1815 he was appointed to the Greek chair of the university of Naples, in which he afterwards taught political science, and, still later, law. His archæological treatises, especially those on numismatics, to which branch of antiquarian science he principally devoted himself, are of European repute. Died in 1850.—J. S., G. <section end="326Q" /> <section begin="326R" />AVELLINO, , an Italian landscape painter, who died in Ferrara in 1700. He had been a pupil of Salvator Rosa, and strove all his life to imitate the style of that great master. Although he succeeded to a considerable extent, he never reached the same importance. <section end="326R" /> <section begin="326S" />AVELLINO,, a clever Neapolitan painter, born in 1674; died at Rome in 1741. He painted history and portrait; but his portraits are his most valuable works. Onofrio Avellino was a pupil of Luca Giordano, and afterwards of Solimena. He copied the pictures of both of these artists largely; and his copies have been frequently sold as originals. He settled in Rome a few years previously to 1729, painting in churches and executing commissions for private individuals. His portraits were latterly much too rapidly executed, as a large family compelled him to regard the quantity more than the quality of his work. The vault of S. Francesco di Paola, in Rome, is this artist's principal production.—A. M. <section end="326S" /> <section begin="326T" />AVELLONI, Francesco, an Italian dramatist, born at Venice in 1756, was a son of Count Cassimir Avelloni of Naples. His first adventure in life, his being robbed on the way from Rome to Naples by a band of thieves, whose captain treated him to a philosophical dissertation on thievery, supplied him with the materials for his first dramatic attempt, "Giulio Assasino," a piece which met with immense success on its first presentation, and continued to be popular till its penniless author was ready with another. He is said to have written nearly six hundred pieces. Died in 1837.—J. S., G. <section end="326T" /> <section begin="326Unop" />AVEMPACE; AVEN-PACE; IBN-BADJA; a Spanish Arab of wide renown; a physician, astronomer, and mathematician; famed for his talent in music; and one of the most original speculative thinkers at that time in Spain. Ibn-Badja was born in Saragossa about the close of the eleventh century. He lived and wrote, for the most part at Seville, and, while yet young, he died at Fez in the year 1138. He was the first among the Arabs in Andalusia who cultivated philosophy successfully—(Avicebron being a Jew, was unknown to him); and his contemporary Abu-Becer (Tofaïl) does not cease to regret that a premature death prevented his master from opening up all the treasures of science; his most important writings being left incomplete, and those that were finished having been written in haste. He wrote, however, very largely—many treatises on physics, besides his main work, "The Rule or Regime of a Hermit," of which Averrhoès speaks so highly. This treatise unfortunately is among our lost works; nor could we have known its contents but for the details recorded by a philosophic Jew of the nineteenth century—Moses of Narbonne. It seems, according to the analysis of M. Munk—an analysis resting on information drawn from all available sources—that Ibn-Badja desired to unfold how, by the successful development of his faculties, Man may reach the end of identification with the "Active Intellect,"—that divine light and power, emanating directly from God. The idea of the treatise is thus in utter and effective hostility to the sceptical philosophy of Gazali, whose aim was to establish the impossibility of attaining any such result by the culture of Reason. In the treatment of his theme he manifests singular acuteness and originality, and the exercised faculties of a man of the world. His conception—briefly expressed—is, that we must rise above the contemplation of individual facts, and look for certainty and purity only in general laws, which are free from imperfection. Intending to discourse at some length concerning the Arabian philosophy in article, the illustrious pupil of Ibn-Badja, we shall not enter at present on details.—J. P. N. <section end="326Unop" />